Titans rally in Wedgewood's return

TRENTON — Sure, a little shopping and swapping by the Flyers paid big dividends for the Titans on Black Friday. Just don’t forget about the leftovers.

While Trenton used contributions from newcomers Andrew Johnston and Matt Konan to help lead it to a come-from-behind 3-2 win over the Evansville IceMen at the Sun National Bank Center, it was second-year Titans forward and former Philly farmhand Andy Bohmbach who tallied the game-winner.

The Devils organization even chipped in with an early gift, returning top goaltending prospect Scott Wedgewood between the pipes a day earlier than expected after Niko Hovinen came down with a late illness.

“You don’t want to take a chance,” said Titans head coach Vince Williams. “It was a bit of a shock for Wedgie, but he came in and I thought he got better as the game went on.”

Wedgewood got the surprise start in net, making his first appearance since leaving the Nov. 9 game against Reading with an apparent head injury after a collision with teammate Andrew Conboy. Niko Hovinen was the first goalie off the ice at the morning skate and was even listed as the starter on the official line chart handed in to league officials. But when warm-ups started, the highly touted 20-year-old and his new, plain white mask led the Titans onto the ice.

But early on, he might have been wishing he got another day to recover.

The IceMen started the scoring one minute and 15 seconds into the first period. Evansville forwards Jason Dale and Patrick Kennedy both skated up the right side in an unconventional 2-on-1, and Titans defender Eric Baier overcommitted to Dale, leaving Kennedy to sneak in skate in alone on Wedgewood. He cleanly beat the Devils prospect to put Evansville on top.

Evansville doubled its advantage less than seven minutes later, again on a 2-on-1, but this time while shorthanded.

Trent Vogelhuber was given a clean shooting lane through the right circle when a Titans defender again overcommitted on the play. Vogelhuber had all day to pick a corner, and he was able to snap a shot into the twine to make it a 2-0 game.

“Your first shot’s a breakaway, it gets in your head a little bit,” Wedgewood said. “Then two shots later, Taylor’s playing a 2-on-1 and he’s not comfortable with that, but he did the smart thing and took away the back door guy, but the other guy played it well and he waited it out and had enough time to put it there.”

But Wedgewood kept Trenton in the game often in the early going, making a huge glove save on IceMen forward Dan Gendur and another save on a 2-on-1 tip play late to keep it at a two-goal deficit.

The deficit was completely erased in the next 20 minutes thanks in large part to Johnston and Konan, who were sent down from AHL Adirondack earlier in the week.

After a Wedgewood save on a Jason Dale shorthanded breakaway, Johnston went the other way and put the finishing touches on a pretty passing play by firing a wrist shot through a screen and past Evansville goaltender Rob Madore at the 4:02 mark of the second period.

Then, Konan certainly earned his first professional point by threading a pretty feed from the left point to the inside of the bottom of the right circle to Bryan Haczyk, who snapped it home to tie the game at two with 4:28 to go in the middle frame.

“I got the puck up the boards and just kind of saw (Haczyk) out of the side of my vision,” said Konan, who was making his pro debut after undergoing surgery for a sports hernia.

“I just threw it there and he just made a nice play and put it in the back of the net.”

Trenton completed the comeback in unlikely fashion at the 6:55 mark of the third period when IceMen forward Carlo Finucci, acquired from Reading on Wednesday, had his right-point pass picked off at the blue line by Bohmbach. In his first year of being on strictly an ECHL deal after being under contract with the Flyers last season, Bohmbach pushed the puck ahead up the right side and was able to skate in cleanly on Madore.

He simply outwaited Madore, lifting the puck over his right pad and under his blocker to give the Titans what turned out to be the deciding tally.

“I read that he was going to pass it back to the middle of the ice, and got a good jump on it and poke checked it away,” Bohmbach said.

Johnston appeared to be badly injured with 1:31 left in the game when Kennedy boarded him in the right wing corner in Trenton’s defensive zone, causing a huge gash on his face that bled profusely onto the ice. He did skate off with a towel held to his face, clearly aggravated with the play.

“I’m feeling good,” Johnston said. “(I hit my head) in the side of the boards there. I think the visor came down and the head went into the rail. But the guys did a good job stitching me up. I hope to (play tomorrow), I’ll see how I am in the morning.”

NOTES: Friday night was the debut of the Titans’ third jerseys, which are primarily red with “Titans” and the player’s number in black font with a white outline. Black and light blue are also prominently featured on the sides of the new sweaters...This was the IceMen’s only visit of the season to Trenton...Paul Kaprowich, a Blues seventh-round draft choice, sat in favor of Madore...Kennedy played one game for the Titans last season...Evansville dressed only 14 skaters -- two less than the standard 16 -- due to accumulating injuries.